The days of booking air tickets over websites or phone may soon be over. Airlines are now switching over to social media to attend to customers.
"The airlines are using social media like they are using the phone, for one-to-one issue resolution," Ragy Thomas, chief executive of Sprinklr, a social media technology provider, was quoted as saying in a Washington Post report.
"It's unrivalled in its efficiency."
Over the past few years, most major and minor carriers have established a presence on Twitter and Facebook, in addition to YouTube and Instagram.
Illinois-based United Airlines and KLM, the Royal Dutch airline of the Netherlands, started dabbling in the social media in 2009 before fully committing a year or two later.
Today, the Dutch carrier employs 135 social media agents who are available 24 hours a day and fluent in 10 languages.
The Atlanta-based Delta Airlines unveiled @DeltaAssist on Twitter in 2006.
Emirates Airline is racing to catch up the social media trend.
The Dubai company unveiled its Twitter handle on March 25 this year and had sent out 17 tweets by the end of its first week on Planet Twitter.
"The airline industry is a front-runner in the adoption of social media," Raymond Kollau, founder of airlinetrends.com <http://airlinetrends.com>, was quoted as saying.
"It allows travellers in transit to get in touch with their airline in a much easier way," he added.
